of them got laid off and couldn't find jobs in their fields again. Many of them now work as  street vendors and food take-out delivery boys. A lot of them are intellectuals. They don't really like to haggle and dealing with people on the street or hard labor. They would like to get back to their field given a chance. They don't mind to get peanut pay as long as they are able to use their skills and work in the office again. 

Why waste such a pool of talents? Just pay them something and let them work on source code or something and build China's tech foundation and tech ecology. If the pressure of having to making a living are taking off, I am sure they become very creative. Most of Albert Einstein creativity came when he was working as a clerk. Had had a lot of free time.

It is a small price to pay for a big return.